Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow: A Book Review

While it starts unexpectedly crawling the streets of
Rotterdam with orphaned children, Ender’s
Shadow picks up steam quite quickly. Returning to the format that made Ender’s Gameso
great, Orson Scott Card decides that we are going to train a child to save
humanity, only this time we witness the story through Bean, a member of Ender’s
jeesh, and a backup to Ender’s role as commander. If Ender fails, if he falters
(and he does), someone else has to push the buttons.

Graff occupies the very same role he did with Ender, but
this time Bean’s minute stature and inquisitive nature allows the reader to
snoop on Graff, to seem more of the behind the scenes, and to do so through the
eyes of one of his boys. While in Ender’s Game
and Ender we saw the blend of resentment and determination, the will to both
win and decimate, in Bean we see the cold, calm calculation of a boy who learns
that he is not quite human, that through genetic manipulation he will never
live to see his twenties but will possess superior intellect. Thus he is
plucked off the streets by a high ranking Catholic Nun and placed in battle
school where he forever exists in Ender’s shadow.

Yet is Ender his enemy or is he one that Bean should emulate
and protect? Written as a companion text, most who open this novel know the
ultimate outcome, but Ender has support, Ender vegged out after killing Bonzo
and was absent from command school, other people killed the buggers … err
formics, and they too reacted. How did Petra live with her errors? How did the
other children survive the onslaught of battles? Thus we learn more about the
world, more about Ender, and tons about Bean. Card uses this text to launch
another line of sequels and explore the social and political vacuum created by
the absence of the great enemy. As one who thoroughly enjoyed Ender’s Game, I
find equal but different joy in this text as well.